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Because we could no longer cope with the increase in the number of questions and fanciers had to wait (too) long for an answer, we have decided to close off our question section. Furthermore, the great majority of new questions submitted has already been answered in the past.

As we want to keep offering interesting medical information to our readers, we will now concentrate more on those general Ask The Vet articles which have already been published on our homepage in the past. In addition, our Ask The Vet archive, which contains numerous questions and answers, is a mine of information which will still remain at your disposal.

All pigoens looked fine this morning but when I got home after work 1 young bird was dead on the floor?

Young birds all pigoens looked fine this morning but when I got home after work 1 young bird was dead on the floor, all i can see is it looked very wet around the mouth and water in the crop. Can you help please, andy

question by: andy kelway

answer by: Ruben Lanckriet

Dear Andy,

This could have multiple causes. An ordinary trauma f.e. flying wrongly with his neck against something could typically give this sudden death, but a disease like the adeno-coli syndrom could also cause this. An autopsy could be of great help.

Kind regards

E coli what is the best treatment for this and how often to treat to stop it coming back?

E coli what is the best treatment for this and how often to treat to stop it coming back? yours mike smout

question by: mike smout

answer by: Ruben Lanckriet

Dear Mike,

It is important to realise that E. coli is a normal intestinal bacteria that is part of the normal flora of every healthy pigeon/animal/human. Certain E. coli strains can sometimes give problems mostly in association with other infectious problems like f.e. adenovirus. Some E. coli strains are more pathogenic than others and can give coli-septicaemia, meaning the bacteria manages to get into the bloodstream and organs, giving inflammations and serious illness. In some species these E. coli strains are called enterohaemorhagic (because they can also give bloody diarrhea) or EHEC. Most E. coli strains, however, are relatively harmless. A big problem with E. coli, though, if it does give a problem, is the very frequent antibiotic resistance. This is because of the massive overmedication, certainly also with pigeons. A lot of fanciers tend to give frequent medication for respiratory or other diseases, using all kinds of the existing antibiotics. Because there are always E. coli strains in the intestines, these bacteria strains develop resistance against these antibiotics, and so we are seeing that a lot of antibiotics aren't working anymore. A good example of this is enrofloxacine or Baytril.

My advice would be to only treat when there is really a problem and let make an antibiogram by samples taken by your veterinarian. An antibiogram is a test that determines what antibiotics still work for an antibiotic strain. For E. coli this is very much needed. It is very difficult to predict what antibiotic could still work. If you are not able to test the strain with antibiogram, it could be wise to use antibiotics that you do not use a lot and follow the advice of your veterinarian.

Never give antibiotics to pigeons if there is no problem at all. That is a waste of product.

Kind regards

My 6 pigeons died without giving me any symptom. First thing is they didn't eat, and if i feed them some of them vomit?

I'm from Bangladesh, my 6 pigeons died without giving me any symptom. First thing is they didn't eat, and if i feed them some of them vomit. plz, give some name of medicine or vaccine which may helpful.

question by: sojibbd

answer by: Ruben Lanckriet

Dear Madam/Sir,

My first suspicion is a problem with adenovirus, but there is not enough information on age of the birds and findings on veterinary examinations. So i cannot exclude other causes like paramyxo, paratyphus, parasites, etc..

Kind regards

Some of my pigeons are losing weight, they don't eat and they throwing up white water?

Some of my pigeons are losing weight, they don't eat they are throwing up white water. They stand in a corner they dont wanna be bothered till they die, also before throwing up , they shit whatery green, if someone can help me please?

question by: gramos

answer by: Ruben Lanckriet

Dear Madam/Sir,

This seems to be a typical case of adenovirus type I mostly complexed with E. coli and hexamitiasis. An antibiotic treatment for these problems combined with light digestable food (not much) and liver protection, is usually enough to get them better.

Kind regards

my pigeons have a problem of vomiting. Whenever they eat any food they vomit so they got very weak?

Hello, my pigeons have a problem of vomiting. Whenever they eat any food they vomit so they got very weak, then dying and their droppings are green white, please help me?

question by: sadik

answer by: Ruben Lanckriet

Dear Madam/Sir,

The symptoms you are describing are indicative for an adenovirus type I problem complexed with E. coli or hexamita, if the birds you are talking about are of young age. It could be wise to treat your birds for this disease (antibiotics) in accordance with your veterinarian and let the birds be examined to exclude other causes that could complex the problem. If the problems are occuring with old pigeons, there could be a problem with adenovirus type II, candida, herpes and/or trichomoniasis.

Kind regards

My pigeons have a problem of vomiting, not eating and then dying?

I have a good breed of pigeons. They have a problem, there is a virus who attack on there crop and they begun vomiting, They do not eat and then after 2 or 3 days they become very weak and then die.
I am very worried sir please help me give a good medicine so i can use to them.
Thank you very much
Aleem Khan

question by: M. Aleem Khan

answer by: Ruben Lanckriet

Dear Sir,

From the symptoms you describe this could be adenovirus, but a medical examination should be necessary to exclude all other causes. You can treat the birds for secundary bacterial infections like E. coli. These are antibiotics like trimetoprim, amoxicilline, doxycycline, lincomycine, enrofloxacine,... An antibiogram can be of help to determine the right medication.

Pigeon found very ill with yellow runny droppings. Refuses to eat or drink. What medicine to give and at what dose?

Pigeon found very ill with yellow runny droppings. Refuses to eat or drink. What medicine to give and at what dose?

question by: Gladys Chardon

answer by: Ruben Lanckriet

Dear Madam/Sir,

The symptoms indicate a very severe liver damage. It could very well be this pigeon is infected with adenovirus type II, but a diagnosis can only be given through inspection and examination by an (avian) vet. If it is adenovirus II, this pigeon is lost and cannot be treated. All birds that get ill from this disease, also die (100% mortality).

For other causes a veterinary examination of the bird is necessary.

Kind regards

My this years young birds have come down with a serious case of young bird sickness?

Dear DR's
My this years young birds have come down with a serious case of young bird sickness, ie they have crop retention and they're also vomiting with very watery and slimey droppings. What would your words of wisdom be???? and how would you treat this???
Kind regards
Lee Jones

question by: Lee Jones

answer by: Ruben Lanckriet

Dear Sir,

Young bird sickness is caused by an adenovirus typical for pigeons (type I). This virus primary causes dammage to the liver and intestines. The liver and intestinal inflammation causes diarrhoea. The hepatitis causes also the vomiting and the not digesting of food. In a lot of cases other agents such as Escherichia coli (a bacteria) or hexamita (protozoön) takes advantage of the situation and causes more intestinal inflammation and diarrhoea. E. coli is normally present in the intestines of ALL pigeons. There is no such thing as getting rid of E. coli. This is the same for other bacteria like staphylococs, streptococs, etc... There is no treatment against the adenovirus although I have seen that pigeons vaccinated for paratyphus are less susceptible for the disease (and all kinds of diseases). Off course you can treat for the secundary infections (treatment for E. coli and hexamita) after clinical examination of the birds and exclusion of other possible infections. If the antibiotics do not help, it could be wise to do an antibiogram of the E. coli as there is a tremendous antibiotic resistance rate in E. coli. At the same time it is wise to give light digestible food and perhaps also a liver protection like sedochol, biochol or...

Kind regards

My pigeon is about 3 months old and I started training him 2 weeks ago. last week I noticed him vomitting after it ate?

My pigeon is about 3 months old and I started training him 2 weeks ago. Last week I noticed him vomitting after it ate, so I thought I overfed, then he didnt vomit anymore last week. Yesterday he vomitted again after its morning meal but stayed active and even ate alot during its afternoon meal. Yesterday also is its basketing for todays training. He arrived this morning from a 50 kilometer toss looking all beat up, fluffed feathers and didnt eat, it threw up again upon arrival so i separated it right away so as not to infect the others and for it to have a good rest. Upon checking him this afternoon I noticed milky yellowish droppings and some more vomit, but when I tried to feed it..it ate a lot and seems to be asking for more. My question is since this is a youngbird.. does it mean that it's adeno...it's type 1? Another question is..does birds infected with adeno still have a good appetite? and third is what other pigeon illness can cause vomitting? Thanks in advance.

question by: Dennis Santos

answer by: Ruben Lanckriet

Dear Madam/Sir,

This is indeed most probably adenovirus type I. A bird can have a good appetite a while after it has vomitted.

Other causes for vomiting can be trichomoniasis, candidiasis (, herpes).

Kind regards

my young pigeons have jelly droppings and still have food in their crops in the morning and they look terrible. Can you help me?

my young pigeons have jelly droppings and still have food in their crops in the morning and they look terrible. Can you help me plz?

question by: mike massie

answer by: Ruben Lanckriet

Dear Madam/Sir,

This is probably an indication of an adenovirus infection or young bird sickness. Other possibilities could be trichomoniasis, candidiasis, herpes. Adenovirus attacks the liver and so can be the cause of bad droppings, vomiting, nausea. Usually E. coli or hexamita takes advantage of the situation and causes enteritis. That's why the treatment is mostly directed to these secundary infections. I also always give a liver protection like f.e. sedochol with the treatment.

Kind regards

My pigeons have young bird disease. What is the best natural treatment for this disease?

Hi, My pigeons have young bird disease. What is the best natural treatment for this disease ? regards

My birds are dying without other clear symptoms?

Please help, I have two problems with my birds. First let me say I flew youngbirds last year(had a great season). My racing loft only has enough room for the current birds racing, so the old birds were in a separate loft for the youngbird season. But they came from that same loft racing loft the prior youngbird season. At the end of Youngbird season I moved the old birds back into the racing loft in their own section. For about two weeks, nothing happened. Then I opened all the sections and let all the birds together. About a week later those oldbirds started dying. The birds show NO symptoms all, I would walk in the loft and one or two would be dead on the floor, and would be perfectly normal looking and have their weight too. So I started checking the birds at night. Nothing, absolutely nothing, no bad droppings no birds going light. No ruffled feathers. This started in early December. First I thought it was the youngbirds infecting the oldbirds cause only the oldbirds were dying. So I separated the OB’s from the YB’s in a different section. Then the youngbirds started dying as well, every two or three weeks one or two birds die. It is March now and is still happening. I even built a new temporary loft and put all of them in there, just incase it could have been the racing loft itself. They have been dying in the new loft too. The second problem which I can see (physically) in the birds is, all of a sudden a bird wont eat when its time to eat. 2 to 3 days later it dies because it dosent eat or drink. Still no bad droppings. Please help

question by: Jeff Carlson

answer by: Pascal Lanneau

Dear Sir,

To diagnose your problem, I would recommend to do a necropsy on a dead pigeon, because without a good diagnosis, it is impossible to treat like it should be.

Death can be caused by many different agents, such as adeno type II, Coli, Paratyphus, eating of toxic materials, etc….

I would surely recommend to test the droppings, checking the presence of wurms, coccidiosis, also to do a culture of a 5 day droppings, searching for paratyphus.

Once the young pigeons reach 20 days old they vomit , no appetite, lameness and they die?

Dear doctor
once the young pigeons reach 20 days old they vomit , no appetite, lameness and they die. Kindly diagnose and advise the remedy.
thank you
ramesh

question by: p.v.ramesh

answer by: Ruben Lanckriet

Dear Sir,

I cannot make a diagnosis without seeing birds and taking samples, but I can give you some information what possible diseases could give the problems you are seeing with your birds.

As possible diseases I'm thinking of paratyphus, trichomoniasis and adeno virus. There is a big chance the birds are also infected with circo virus and therefore lack the immunity to cope with diseases. You can find more information on these diseases by clicking on the corresponding tags. Let your birds be examined by an avian vet to get a correct diagnosis.

My young birds are detoriating. Symtoms are losing weight and light green (fresh leave color) watery dropping, in some cases white watery ( like diliute milk) dropping. Please advice. I had given them antibiotic (amoxillin) for 5 days they were doing fine. One day it rained, temperature drops and all of sudden they started the dropping mentioned above. they are no more active, not flying to their perches and sitting on the floor. 2 died already.

question by: Adil Sohail Mughal

answer by: Ruben Lanckriet

Dear Madam/Sir,

A diagnostic examination of the birds by a veterinarian is important. With the symptoms you describe, there are some possibilities. It is important to know if there is/was any vomiting, problems flying or nervous problem. From the info I have from you I think mainly of adenovirus, paratyphus, endoparasites, perhaps paramyxovirus, streptococcus or another infection. There is also a possibility the young birds are weakened by the circovirus so any infection can cause severe problems, as this virus takes away the pigeon's immunity.

Kind regards

Hi, my brother has a pigeon that is about 1yr 6 months. The pigeon started vomiting and also having yellow droppings?

Hi, my brother has a pigeon that is about 1yr 6 months. The pigeon started vomiting and also having yellow droppings. Is it possible to tell what the pigeon could have and what kind of medication we can give him. Thanks
Kind regards,
Loredana Scicluna for Malta

question by: Loredana Scicluna

answer by: Ruben Lanckriet

Dear Madam/Sir,

It is very possible the pigeon has the adenovirus type II. This is a very serious illness that causes complete destruction of the liver and death of the pigeon. It is very important you get the bird into quarantine and desinfect the lofts completely.

The bird will normally die if it is this virus. If there is another (bacterial) cause for these symptoms you can give the bird antibiotics, sedochol and electrolytes, if necessary by injection by your veterinarian. A clinical examination is always of help.

Kind regards

Is there any adenovirus and herpesvirus vaccines available for pigeons? Can we use circovirus and pox vaccines for chickens?

Is there any adenovirus and herpesvirus vaccines available for pigeons? Regarding to circovirus and pox vaccines, can we use circovirus and pox vaccines for chickens? Thank you.

question by: Fredericht

answer by: Ruben Lanckriet

Dear Sir,

There are no such pigeon vaccines available at the moment. The EDS vaccine for chickens has been used with pigeons for adenovirus, but scientifically the efficacity of this is seriously questioned, because the EDS adenovirus is very different to the pigeon adenovirus. The problem with vaccines developed for other animals is that these vaccines are not tested with pigeons for efficacity or side-effects. Sometimes the virus strains can differ a lot from the virus strain that causes disease with pigeons. It could be interesting to test the chicken circo vaccines on pigeons. I don't think it is interesting to use the Marek vaccines (herpes) for chickens, because the virus is quite different.

It is absolutely not advisable to use chicken pox vaccines with pigeons. In some chicken vaccines the original (living) pigeon pox virus is used. This means you would give your birds the pox disease.

Kind regards

This morning when feeding my pigeons i noticed one pigeon sitting on the perch whith its eye lids half closed?

Hello, can you please help me? This morning when feeding my pigeons i noticed one pigeon sitting on the perch whith its eye lids half closed, normally this bird is quite nervous and doesn't like being handled but it just sat there and let me pick it up, eye lids still closing, slowly, it felt very light and fluffy. Its droppings were small and yellow and didnt seem to be aware of whats going on around it. It is a yearling. Any ideas please?

question by: john campbell

answer by: Ruben Lanckriet

Dear Sir,

The symptoms are those of a very sick pigeons with a real chance of dying soon. The yellow urine is indicative for a severe liver problem f.e. adenovirus type 2 can do this. I advise you to let the bird(s) be examined by a veterinarian if possible and let take samples to get a good diagnosis. If you have a sick pigeon it is always advisable to put this bird in quarantine to protect the rest of your colony.

The birds drink water and the water stays in the crop. The birds crop swells and the bird will die. Could you advise?

The birds drink water and the water stays in the crop. The birds crop swells and the bird will die. Often in you try to squeeze or drain the crop the bird will die. There is no food just water. Could you advise?

question by: David Watkins

answer by: Ruben Lanckriet

Dear Madam / Sir,
This could be adenovirus, canker and/or a yeast infection. Best is to let the birds check for these parasites and do an appropriate treatment. The adeno-coli syndrom can be treated with antibiotics, sedochol, electrolytes, light digestable food. Canker with nitro-imidazoles and yeastinfections with amphotericin B or nystatine (depending on the kind of fungus). Kind regards

My birds have been dying and had diarrhoea from an unknown disease?

Hi, I have myself a real dilemma, first my breeders about 5 weeks ago started having very bad diarrea so what I did was worm them with ascapilla whilst it was dark so they dont feed it to the young in the nest, then treated them for cocci canker with a 2in1 mix amprolium and rinadazol this kind of cured the dropping to solid again with the help of black minerals, then out of the blue thefirst two young I bred this year atleast 4 months old fluffed up one day and next day dead, this started a chain next squabs in the nest were getting abandoned by parents and just dying, then had an breeding hen fluff up and dead and a few other breeders some was drinking excessive water and when holding them all the water come out all yellow looking and smelling fowl and they died instantly. Some of the birds would be gasping for air near death only one after recovery had a slight neck problem, one other bird had neck shivers after this I lost a few yearling same thing fluffed up one day and dead the next. Sent the droppings to one vet who confirmed he found a bit of hair worm but nothing else - have contacted another but I don't have much faith in the vets I do not vaccinate for paramycso virus however have bought the vaccine now - one question also is do I vaccinate now even though the birds appear healthy as all the bad ones dead however still have wet droppings or wait a month until everthing clears up as a friend has said? Second question is some of the droppings are paramycso looking i.e. all water and small bit of green faceas but of the birds that was dying it was a yellow with no green at all and hardly any mass? I lost a few breeders aswell I am reluctant to try anything as don't want to further damage them some of the young also had less developed feathers if this helps? I am stuck as to what the problem was as can paramycso really cause instant death with no neck twisting and shall I vaccinate them now even though they are not fully well even though most of them look healthy??

question by: Bradford Rollers UK

answer by: Ruben Lanckriet

Dear Sir, Some of the symptoms are indeed indicative for paramyxo virus. Nevertheless, as you mentioned yellow diarrhoea with birds before they die, I also suspect adenovirus type II. Yellow diarrhoea is a sign the liver is very badly harmed and that's the case with adenovirus type II. The virus even completely destroys the liver. With adenovirus II, there is 100% mortality, this means that if a bird gets sick it will certainly die. Luckely not all the birds get sick. It is not clear why one bird gets sick and the other not. The fact that sick birds also could survive on your loft, indicates adenovirus type II can't be the only problem. It is very possible that the watery dropping are caused by the hairworm infestation and/or paramyxo. The bad feathers could be an indication the young birds are also infected with circovirus. This virus attacks immune cells of the young bird (under 4 months old), this makes them vulnerable for all kinds of infections. It is a major problem this year in Belgium with a lot of deaths in young birds. They can die from ordinary infections like canker, but also from paratyphoid, adenovirus, etc... Certainly do not underestimate the hairworm infestation as it can also be cause of deaths. As for the vaccination for paramyxo, it is advisable to also do this as soon as possible. Kind regards

Hi, I have 3 stock birds which went sick. They are having very liqiud faeces which smell very bad. Baytril doesn't help.

Hi, I have 3 stock birds which went sick. They are having very liqiud faeces which smell very bad. they are on a Baytril course since 5 days with no effect at all. I have separate the birds from others. They also drink more than usual and they have lost pectoral muscle mass aswell. All the time they are puffed up without any glint in their eyes. I think it is a bad situation. No faecel smeares have been done yet and no other tests. What could be the disease and treatment please? I have also given the birds 3 drops of baytril directly in the mouth last monday with little or no effect. Any suggestions please? Thanks. Joe.

question by: Joseph Scicluna

answer by: Ruben Lanckriet

Dear Sir,
You should consult a vet as soon as possible. There are some possibilities for the symptoms. One of the possibilities certainly could be paramyxovirus, in which case your other birds also could be in danger.
Other possibilities are parasites, adenovirus type II, yeast infection, etc.
Kind regards